Our first meeting was in front of a volcano painting. We were casted for a film as agents of a cult that worships lava and painting. Kerstin Brätsch and Ei Arakawa had a peculiar plan and brought us to volcanic island to realize their vision. A DJI drone was flying above our heads, operated by the Green Tea gallerist Tomoo Arakawa. Dressed in volcanic red we climbed up Stromboli and looked down at the black sand and into the boiling magma. This collective travel experience became a catalyst for the individual works we selected for our show "Amore Atomico Di Amore Di Lava" with Green Tea Gallery at Federico Vavassori in Milan .

The black sand of Stromboli and the appearance of shadows on its surfaces became a phenomena Frieda Toranzo Jaeger wanted to investigate in her painting. A reluctant "dance" on top of the volcano is a part of the experience as an agent. Seemingly irrational moves— like the shaping of a volcanic silhouette with unexpected materials in Davide Stucchi’s work. In Astrid Kajsa Nylander’s painting a couple is resting in a radiating red warmth, recalling pulsating lava as an internal source of energy—an alternative to the modernist linking of activity with verticality. The turtle sculpture by Tanja Nis-Hansen at first sight looks like a generic but nevertheless deceiving trophy, like a questionable souvenir a traveller would bring back to remind herself of an elsewhere. “1,2,3,4,5,7,8, the more the better” male voices trying to imitate girls sing from the back of the gallery. In a video animation Beatrice Marchi set a reunion of a girl band in front of a landscape depicting the Gulf of Naples. The five characters move clumsily. Together they expect to be a group but looking at them isolated, their body language reveals an ulterior doubt—Why are we here together?

We were spectators of a volcano ready to erupt any second, and travelers occupying Italian cafeterias making short breaks to plan our next stop, lost in translation and about to cry after having to smile too much. One can only experience oneself, nevertheless many things correlate. This show is built on a growing friendship and our individual experiences of being at the same time in the same place. Let’s drink chamomile tea together, put chamomile on your face. Breath in, breath out. Friendship is magic.